A Slight Case Of Misjudgment: 1. A Slight Case Of Misjudgment

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1. A Slight Case Of Misjudgment

Beta for this story: Randy. All remaining errors are my own.

Disclaimer: Lord of The Rings, Middle Earth and all it's canonical inhabitants were created by J.R.R. Tolkien and are property of the Tolkien Estate. The Movie adaption of this world was created by Peter Jackson and are property of New Line Cinema. I own nothing of this and borrow both here without permission and just for entertainment. This story was inspired by a discussion at the lotrfic_crit group on live journal. Read at your own risk!

A Slight Case Of Misjudgment

Sauron's howl of rage shook the very foundations of Barad-Dur, leaving his subjects trembling.

The Witch-King, never before one to back down from a challenge, shrank into himself in his robe and kept his mouth carefully closed and his thoughts clouded. At least he hoped that the rage of his master would be enough to hide his thoughts from him.

The other subjects of the Dark Lord – Orcs, Trolls, Wargs, Fell Beasts, slaves, and, as it were, even some Black Numenoreans – did their best to shrink back into whatever covering shadow or dark corner was available.

Not all of them were so lucky, though. Both the Witch King and the new advisor of the Dark Lord could do nothing but endure their master's presence and hope that his rage might not turn upon them. So did the Lieutenant of the Dark Lord who was called the Mouth of Sauron, who was, at the present, very, very silent.

The reembodied Dark Lord smashed the offending mirror before him with the mere force of his mind. Even though the plate was of fine, polished silver, the impact of his will alone was enough, and the reflective surface shattered into numerous pieces.

"How!?" the Dark Lord screamed. "How is this possible?!"

He turned to his three advisors.

"You," he singled out the one most recently added among them, "you have studied ring-lore almost as deeply as I have studied it myself! Tell me, how could this happen?!"

Curunir(1) bowed. At this moment, he very much would have preferred to be somewhere else. When he took Sauron's side, he had envisioned his part as the new right hand of the Dark Lord somewhat differently.

Very carefully, he said:

"Maybe it was not the best idea, my Lord, to derive the shape of your new physical form directly from the Ring. You know how long it has been held by one of... them. When you tapped its memory to regain your shape, it chose the form of the one to whom it had been most closely been connected this last time."

His words were met with dead silence. He knew his statement had been a grave mistake when the other two advisors carefully added some space between him and themselves.

Curunir was surprised at his own capability for rational thought at this moment of utter threat of his own possible destruction.

'How unfortunate that the power of the One Ring could give Sauron enough potency to regain physical form, but not enough to change it at will,' he thought to himself. 'And how strange how little impact mere size has on the amount of terror Sauron is able to induce.'

Those were the last thoughts of the former White Wizard before the blow of his new master's mind sent him flying across the chamber and the hard collision with the wall robbed him of his consciousness for a while.

Sauron sneered.

"Take him to his chambers! I still need him!" he commanded coldly, and then he stomped off on oversized hairy feet, his likeness a perfect image of the one who had last held the Ring and whose broken shell now lay deep in the dungeons of the Dark Tower.

-- The End --

Notes:

(1) Curunir: "Man of Craft" or "Skillful One", Saruman's Sindarin name. I chose using this name here instead of the Maia name "Curumo", given to him in the Unfinished Tales, since Saruman thinks of Sauron as Sauron. Thanks go to Randy to point the Maia name out to me, though!

Author's note:

This ficlet was inspired by a discussion at the lotrfic_crit group on live journal about the believability of alternative universes, during which Anna_wing remarked that an AU where Sauron turns out to be a hobbit would have a lot more explaining to do than an AU closer to canonical settings. Which prompted me to write this. Thanks go to Anna for the wonderful Plot Bunny!

Aislynn

This is a work of fan fiction, written because the author has an abiding love for the works of J R R Tolkien. The characters, settings, places, and languages used in this work are the property of the Tolkien Estate, Tolkien Enterprises, and possibly New Line Cinema, except for certain original characters who belong to the author of the said work. The author will not receive any money or other remuneration for presenting the work on this archive site. The work is the intellectual property of the author, is available solely for the enjoyment of Henneth Annûn Story Archive readers, and may not be copied or redistributed by any means without the explicit written consent of the author.

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